A Wildly Profitable Timing Template for Email Marketing

About the Author: Adam Costa is the Editor in Chief of trekity.com, a killer new travel site. If you like to travel, follow him on Twitter for adventure and intrigue.

Creating a profitable newsletter requires a little planning. But once it’s set up, a newsletter continues to engage your readers for months or years to come.

In this tutorial you’ll learn:

The psychology behind all profitable newsletters

A simple newsletter schedule that works every time (be sure to download the free schedule template below)

The three types of emails you’ll send (and the exact order to send them in)

This schedule template includes 30 emails, sent out over nearly three months. Every email (even the promotional ones) should be high-value, with the intention of getting your readers to know, like and trust you.

But before you write a single email you must…

Understand The Psychology Behind All Profitable Newsletters

What’s the number one rule for a successful newsletter?

Be useful.

Provide value in every email. Make bold promises, then over-deliver. Doing so builds credibility in your readers’ eyes, which means your next email will get opened – and eventually they’ll (hopefully) buy your solution.

AWeber – along with the following publishing schedule – makes this easy to do.

Use This Proven Autoresponder Schedule

Now let’s put theory into practice.

The first step is to create a spreadsheet which outlines your autoresponder series.

Helpful Emails

These are non-pitch emails designed to build trust with your readers. Do not even mention your products or services in these emails.

Think of helpful emails like blog posts. They should be between 500 and 1,000 words and solve a specific problem your readers have.

For example, if your market is interested in natural weight loss, your helpful emails could include tips for natural weight loss, fat-burning foods, or a list of “super foods” which promote weight loss. These topics demonstrate you understand their problem and can provide solutions.

In this autoresponder schedule you’ll write five helpful emails first. Then, after you’ve proven value to your readers, it’s time to send the first of three…

Pitch Emails

For the product pitches, avoid the hard sell. Simply address the problem your readers have, then lead them to your product in the email.

Please note: pitch emails are helpful, too.

The best approach is to provide educational content first, then end the email with education about your product or service and a few compelling reasons why they should buy.

For example, “5 Foods Which Burn Fat Naturally” would give your readers five foods, then offer them a list of 100 natural foods in an eBook.

Here’s an example of a pitch email:

Hi FIRST NAME,

Natural weight doesn’t have to be difficult.

Here are five foods which help you burn fat naturally:

FOOD #1
Interesting facts

FOOD #2
Interesting facts

FOOD #3
Interesting facts

FOOD #4
Interesting facts

FOOD #5
Interesting facts

These five foods will help you lower your blood pressure, cholesterol and get that sleek, sexy look you’ve always wanted.

But that’s just the beginning.

In my new eBook “Natural Weight Loss” you’ll discover over 100 foods which help you naturally burn fat.

You can read a sample chapter here:

INSERT LINK

Until next time,

NAME

The pitch email leads them to a sales page with testimonials, a strong guarantee and a prominent call to action (note: they should be able to read a sample chapter on this page).

Since you’ve already demonstrated value through your autoresponder, your readers are much more likely to buy.

Of course, you can greatly increase sales through…

Follow Up Emails

Once you’ve pitched a product, follow up a few days later and remind your readers about it. This email should either offer a limited time discount, stronger guarantee and/or testimonials from people who already purchased your product.

Here’s an example of what a follow-up email looks like:

Hi FIRST NAME,

In the last email, we covered five natural foods that help you burn fat. If you didn’t read it, the five foods are:

FOOD #1
FOOD #2
FOOD #3
FOOD #4
FOOD #5

These five foods have been proven to burn fat and help lower your blood pressure and cholesterol levels.

But that’s just the beginning.

In my new eBook “Natural Weight Loss” you’ll discover over 100 foods which help you naturally burn fat.

Here are what people are saying about this guide?

Testimonial #1
Testimonial #2
Testimonial #3

You can start enjoying these benefits too!

Try out my guide to “Natural Weight Loss” for 30 days. If you don?t like it for any reason, shoot me an email and I’ll issue a prompt and courteous refund.

You can even read a free sample chapter by clicking here:

LINK to sales page with free sample chapter

And if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact me at youremail@yourwebsite.com

Easy, right? Notice how we include benefits, testimonials and a guarantee in the email – but not the price. We just want to build the value of the product, then let them read the sample chapter before we talk about money.

What You Need to Do Next

Download the autoresponder schedule and start outlining your email series. As you write the emails, add them into AWeber, schedule them to go out every three or four days and presto – you’ve got a profitable autoresponder series which builds relationships for months to come.

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15 Comments

This is awesome. I’m pretty much the person you were writing to when you wrote this post, because I’m currently in the middle of crafting three very long, very complicated followup sequences for subscribers acquired through paid media – and I’ve been looking for a good birds eye view of an effective, long, high value sequence.

As you might expect, I’ve got some potentially tough questions for you:

Do you use this progression for paid leads (Adwords, FB ads etc), or organic (SEO, WOM) or both? The reason I ask is I wonder if this will work well in a situation like I’m facing – I’d like to be sure that my series is going to produce ROI from paid media within (ideally) 30 days.

I notice that in the first 60 days you only have *four* pitch emails going out – that’s about 1/5th as much as I’m planning, and I’m planning the series I have so far based on internal testing. I know for a fact that if I only did two promotions per month I wouldn’t make nearly as much as if I promote weekly. (and honestly, as lame as it sounds, daily promotions have done the best for me short term, but I’m moving away from that so I can focus less on replenishing my list and more on creating long term repeat customers).

The goal is to see ROI on the new list I’ll be building within a month. If I hit that target, then the growth curve is going to be outstanding. So really the question is – when you compare the DPL (cost to acquire a subscriber) to the 30 day, 60 day, and (lets say) 1 year VPL (average value of those subscribers), at what point are you turning a profit?

I appreciate any answer you offer up – including “Go away kid ya bother me.”

John

5/12/2012 7:40 pm

That is an email every couple days. I think it depends on what you are selling. Most newsletters that had that schedule I would unsubscribe from in the first week or less.

Excellent guide! I’m really interested in the answers to Josh’s question and, along the lines of what he was wondering, do you see these as hard and fast rules or something with some flexibility? Also do you see a difference in autoresponder frequency between lists designed to promote products and ones for services?

These are definitely not hard and fast rules – merely a guideline to help you focus on getting your autoresponder set up.

I don’t see a difference between products and services – the key is to match what your prospects want with the right emails at the right time. Frequency varies by market (if I need a dentist, I need one NOW, not three weeks later).

While I agree with the basic remise of this article, I do feel that every three days is much too frequent. It doesn’t matter how relevant the content is if the customer (potential or current) feels bombarded they are going to unsubscribe.

I see a lot of push back against the whole frequency of mailings issue. First of all, unless you’ve got data to back up your opinion, it’s just that, an opinion.

As someone who’s tested EXTREMELY frequent mailings I can say with some authority that I’ve seen spikes in my unsub rate when I went over two emails per DAY (yes, per day, wussies). But even daily or every other day emails (as long as they deliver value and foster a community) only improve my open rate, clickthrough rate, and sales – along with social sharing and commenting.

It may be counter intuitive, and hey, maybe you’ve tested sending frequently and backed off based on raw data.

If you haven’t tested it with your list, then please:

Don’t balk at frequency – test it. Chances are you’ll find that your tribe does NOT flee in droves when you mail often (especially if you deliver great stuff).

Think about it like this: If you’re on Amazon’s list (as I’m sure many of us are) – how many emails per day is acceptable when they’re sending you cut-rate deals on stuff you already want to buy? I don’t mind a couple per day – as long as it’s legitimately stuff I’m interested in or want to see more of.

Better yet, (since Amazon has no personality, and I’m guessing you do) how many emails are acceptable from a friend or family member… before you’re nastily writing them back about clogging your inbox?

There’s a HUGE difference between spamming the bejeezus out of your list and providing high-value content and specific, contextually targeted offers on a regular basis.

I’d urge you all to test and regulate your frequency based on data and actual feedback from your tribe, otherwise you’re losing money and a chance to actually build your list much faster through social sharing and all that wonderful viral stuff.

Great email. My question is regarding the format and tone of the email. I think I’m leaning towards not having it as a newsletter, but simply a personal, plain text email from me to them. What are the pros and cons of this approach?

This is a very helpful post, and I also like the comment thread with the various perspectives on the value and frequency of emails to our list.

Frequency is something that definitely has to be tested, and I have my personal preferences about how frequently I email my list, but I’ve also observed that if your subcribers get to know, like, and trust you through the value you bring to them, they are less likely to unsubscribe even when you send daily emails.